Friday, 6 March 2009

Moving Wallpaper2x02 Episode 2Not the best episode, which does raise the question: with show-within-show Renaissance already shooting, what are the behind-the-scenes team going to do for most of the series? It's still funny, though only sporadically. I hope it gets another recommission, but Must Try Harder if it's going to.[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]

Orangutan Diary2x01 Episode 1Since the advent of iPlayer, the BBC's website has really gone downhill -- series that previously had dedicated sites now just have pages with iPlayer-esque links, like this one for Orangutan Diary. Series 1 had a proper site! (Archive here.)[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Watchmen is turning out to be a real "love it or hate it" film, with both critics and audiences. Depending on what day you're looking on and what site you're looking at, you're likely to be left thinking it's either utterly brilliant or utterly dreadful. Incidentally, this isn't a "fans love it / non-fans hate it" split either -- it seems to afflict both sides equally. So the truth, as I say, is that it more or less divides people.

Personally, I found a few flaws with it; but, as Danny Boylerecently said (about a different film), "it's imperfect; which every film should be". Yep, I'm firmly in the "loved it" camp.

You know, I've had this poem lined up since November -- that's almost four months ago. Why so long? Well, that's when I found it, and realised it would be a good enough choice for today -- Watchmen Day. It's not necessarily got a great deal to do with said comic adaptation, but that does have a major character called Ozymandias, and some of the poem's imagery is appropriate...

I met a traveller from an antique landWho said:-- "Two vast and trunkless legs of stoneStand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,Half sunk, a shatter'd visage lies, whose frownAnd wrinkled lip and sneer of cold commandTell that its sculptor well those passions readWhich yet survive, stamp'd on these lifeless things,The hand that mock'd them and the heart that fed.And on the pedestal these words appear:"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!"Nothing beside remains: round the decayOf that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare,The lone and level sands stretch far away.

It was written in December 1817 (published January 1818) as part of a writing competition with Shelley's friend, Horace Smith. So guess what I'll be publishing on Monday...